Blind Loyalty
by Shadow-Cipher
Summary: A SatAM inspired story. Adventure into the extreme lengths one girl will go to in order to show her loyalty to Robotnik - even if it means putting his life before her own.


Mobius, a once beautiful realm where the lush nature could grow wild and free, where anthropomorphic animals of all shapes, sizes, and personalities could live whatever lives they wanted, seek whatever dreams entered their minds. The world was slowly dying, and a vast chunk of its inhabitants had already succumbed to a fate that many would consider worse than death itself. Though parts of this world were still lush in nature, much of it had been eaten away by pollution, the foul hand of death creeping slowly from its nesting ground and reaching over anything it could, devouring alive everyone and everything that dared stand in its way. As one moved further and further away from the capital city of Robotropolis, the death slowly gave way for a lush world that still managed to keep itself alive, and hidden within that world were the survivors of the anarchy. The eyes of two different parties constantly upon each others backs, seeking weakness, waiting for a chance to strike and wipe the other off the face of the planet once and for all. It seemed a slow, painful battle, and time was beginning to take its toll.

Deep within the confines of a lone forest lived the Freedom Fighters, masked away from the glistening gaze of their greatest foe. From within this small home, they worked ceaselessly to take back their true home before it consumed itself, but also to remain alive and well. The little hidden town of Knothole was seldom fully quiet, and it always appeared as though someone were bustling about, yowling about something that needed to be finished or something that had gone terribly awry.

This very day was hardly an exception. From within one of the larger huts, a meeting was soon to begin between some not quite so familiar faces. At this moment, only two parties were present, and neither seemed in a spot where they wished to discuss too much.

On one side sat a bright blue lynx with thick, lush fur. From her camouflaged attired alone, it was easy to tell she had seen quite a bit of action on the field, and was fully comfortable with throwing herself into the fray to take the fight to evil itself. To the other side, however, was a larger animal that stuck out just a bit more. On the surface, she may have appeared to be nothing more than a hot pink platypus, but it didn't take long to spot the metallic parts of her body, hints of a dark encounter from times long past that could never been undone. The entirety of the right arm, left leg, and long flat tail were entirely made of solid, shiny metal, and though this clearly did nothing to hold her back, it still served as a grim reminder that, had she not been saved by her companion that day, she very well could have ended up as a robot mindlessly serving her greatest enemy.

Silence commanded the room as the two girls waited patiently for the other two guests to arrive. The platypus, Harper, was clearly on edge herself, her tail twitching sharply as her mind raced about things hardly within her control. The lynx, Baretta, had taken notice of this, but as Harper turned her head aside and stared at the upper corner of the wall, Baretta wasn't entirely sure it would be appropriate to interrupt her train of thought.

The silence was soon smashed into pieces, though, as the door to the hut swung open and made way for two strangers. They were both relatively small, but the pride glowing in their eyes towered far over their small statures. The first one was a dark blue Tasmanian devil, and with how little clothing he was wearing, it was easy to see the knots in his fur and the cyan stripe upon his chest. The second stranger was a fluffy little squirrel who was a very dark green in colour, though upon what could be seen of her chest behind her clothes revealed a much brighter green stripe running down her entire chest – though where it ended was unclear. It was evident the dark brown pants and grey shirt were an attempt to mask her vibrant colours, a good idea for one who might be planning to go out into danger.

"Sorry we're late," the squirrel chirped, her tail flicking sharply behind her.

Harper lifted her head, but hardly got a chance to respond before Baretta chimed in, "It's quite fine. You don't need to justify yourselves to us." Her soft smile was able to quickly comfort the newcomers that they had done no wrong. "Please, take a seat."

The Tasmanian devil reacted a little quicker, thrusting his way in front of the squirrel suddenly to hasten towards a chair. The young squirrel merely shook her head, chuckling internally at the impatience of her companion, before also moving to claim the seat directly next to the Tasmanian devil, who was already leaned upon the table in front of him, eyes aglow, ready to hear what was planned for him and his companion.

As the squirrel sat down, curling her tail at such an angle to which sitting would be comfortable, Baretta then spook up, "Good, we won't take too long to have this meeting, as you have a long journey ahead of yourselves should you choose to accept."

"We accept no matter what it is," the Tasmanian devil barked eagerly, his long tail wagging eagerly at the idea of any mission that involved leaving Knothole.

The squirrel exhaled and shook her head, "You're getting ahead of yourself, doll. How about we slow down and listen to what they have to say?" The Tasmanian devil quickly shifted his gaze towards the squirrel, though there was no ill glow to his eyes, merely a glimmering realization.

With an embarrassed exhale, the Tasmanian devil muttered, "Sorry. Go on."

Baretta happened to notice the small smile on Harper's face as she looked upon the eagerness of the Tasmanian devil being slowed down to a halt, and it made her feel a soft warmth inside to see her lover smile like that. She didn't spend too much time fixated on this, however, and she knew there was much to get done and with each passing second being one more second they could be using to take the battle to their greatest foe, she continued speaking on. "It's quite fine. It makes me happy to see people so eagerly willing to take the fight to Robotnik, and do that you will, for your mission, should you accept it, will take you straight into Robotropolis. We know this to be a dangerous task, but you two have quite proven yourselves in the art of stealth before and we are confident you will be safe."

The tail of the Tasmanian devil immediately began wagging eagerly once more at the sound of getting to go on such a mission, and he leaned forward in an eager hope that this somehow might allow the briefing to move quicker.

Harper finally spoke up now, and Baretta naturally took a back seat as Harper finally made her presence verbally known. "For quite some while now, we have been keeping an active silence around Robotnik to put him in a false sense of security. We have been mostly dedicating on missions close to home and it has been quite some time since our presence has been detected in his city walls. We feel this is a perfect opportunity to step in and see what he has been doing with this time. If our theory is correct, there will likely be something big or important hidden in his city, and he will likely be very fixated on whatever it may be. We want you to nose around Robotnik's plans and try and figure out what he's been working on lately, and if possible, take it out of the picture."

"However, we want to know just how Robotnik reacts to such a suspicious silence, and we want to see just how secure he'll really feel in himself, so if possible, we'd also like you to observe Robotnik and his... mood." Baretta took a pause in her speech to consider an appropriate choice of words, and eventually found herself settling on something rather basic by comparison. "We want to know if this kind of strange silence causes any major reactions in him."

Harper lifted her arm a little now, resting it loudly upon the table, "However, do not consider getting discovered worth your while. As long as you can put a cap on whatever project he's working on, that alone will be a success. We do not want you to risk getting yourselves captured, so do consider the safety boundaries when attempting to listen in on his actions."

"Break into his home, smash up his things, creep on his personal life if possible. Got it!" cried the Tasmanian devil, clearly already having mentally accepted this mission.

"That's one way to put it," Harper chuckled in response. "But in a blunt way, yes."

Baretta's ears twitched as she asked, "I doubt I need to even ask if you accept this mission, as your reaction indicates that answer well enough."

"Yes, we accept," the squirrel chimed, much to the joy of her companion.

The Tasmanian devil now leaped form his seat, a sharp gleam to his eyes hinting he was ready to take on Robotnik immediately. The young marsupial took a moment to pat his waist with his hands, confirming his laser pistol to still be present on his person. When it was confirmed, however, he wasted no time in rushing out the door, his squirrel companion calling at him to not be quite so hasty as she charged off after him.

As the two eager Freedom Fighters departed to head towards their destination, Harper and Baretta now faced each other, and among the two of them began to discuss other affairs a little more personal in nature.

\- - - - -

In the foul walls of Robotropolis, however, things were not quite as cheery, which was a natural thing to expect. The city itself was built on an empire of misery and self-destruction, and its vicious leader would not soon see the day where he allowed such a joy to radiate within his walls. Each building of the city was ominous in its own regard, and whether they towered pointlessly into the polluted heavens or crashed in on their own misery, each one was meaningless in existence, nothing more than a grim reminder of how many people once made this place their home. Now it was desolate, entirely commanded by ceaseless robot patrols and the commanding eye of its intimidatingly ruthless leader. In the middle of the capital sat a large tower, and it was from within the walls of this very tower that leader was currently residing, comfortably at rest in his immense seat, but hardly the same in his own thoughts.

The command center was silent, almost eerily so, and though two other people were present in the room alongside their leader, neither made so much as a peep. At the computer monitors was a rather short, bald fellow in full green. He soundlessly ticked away at the keyboard, constantly straining his neck to see the screens far above him before returning to his typing. Even the keyboard itself seemed afraid to click too loudly, as though the slightly rogue sound might offend the man in charge. With even less life, a female also was in the room, stood motionless near the chair her very leader was comfortably nestled in. The girl herself was dressed in an eerily similar fashion to the man whom she stood alongside, and bar her lush brown hair, pair of goggles, and a suspicious sleeve covering her left arm, she was very much the spitting image of him. Though she appeared almost lifeless, hardly even twitching as she stood, her mind was always alive, and she spent the many hours she stood there quietly thinking about a seemingly infinite number of things, keeping each thought, idea, or concern well to herself unless explicitly told otherwise.

Robotnik himself, the ruthless ruler of this destructive empire, was the only one in the room that made even the slightest sound. As he leaned back in his seat, seemingly lost in his own thoughts, he quietly stroked the head of a robotic chicken sat upon his lap, a meaningless pet, but one of the only things ever to step face on planet Mobius he had ever shown the slightest inkling of concern for. Though his sharp red eyes were fixated on the security cameras as they flashed motionless images of a dead city in front of him, his mind was completely in another world, and it wasn't long before he expressed these concerns, but not to who one might think.

His gaze suddenly shifted to look upon the small robotic chicken in his lap, who uttered one almost silent clucking sound to greet his master as their gazes met. "It's been too quiet lately, Cluck," Robotnik hummed in his regular sinister tone to his pet. He now shifted to stroking the little robotic chicken on the beak, which earned him another quiet cluck in return. Robotnik slightly leaned forward in his seat now, taking command of the security cameras abruptly as he switched through them quickly, much to the dismay of his short underling, who exhaled quietly under his breath as Robotnik began pointless flipping through each camera in an irritated haste. "I am surprised nothing has gone awry yet," he uttered before slowing down on the rapid switching of camera feeds just a little.

As the small fellow in green was able to take command of the cameras again, he tilted his head in Robotnik's general direction, seemingly whimpering, "Sir, isn't the lack of an attack a good thing? It has given us much time to work on our latest plan."

Robotnik's very sharp gaze quickly silenced his underling, and he hissed, "Silence is suspicious, Snively. You should know this by now." He took a moment to close his eyes and relax his mind as he leaned back in his chair, his mind on a completely different train as he muttered, "As much as I prefer that accursed hedgehog to stay out of my affairs, I am expecting him to interfere soon."

Snively could only exhale in irritation, a sound he hoped his leader had not heard, or at the very least, not taken offense to. He was quickly realizing nothing he said would even slightly shift this conversation, and that this wasn't a debate between him and Robotnik, but a debate between two different parts of Robotnik's mind throwing him to the side. So at this point, all the little underling could do was say with a sigh, "I will continue to monitor the cameras for you, sir."

In a surprising turn, Robotnik merely hummed, "Good," and shifted his attention to a different part of the room almost immediately. As he rotated his chair away from the security cameras in an attempt to distract his mind from that very concept, he came eye-to-eye with his other underling, Rissa, who was clearly so immersed in her own thoughts that she didn't react to his gaze locking securely on her figure. "You are being particularly quiet," Robotnik noted with a sinister hum. "Do tell – is something on your mind?" It wasn't that he particularly cared about her feelings, but rather presumed her to be keeping something from him. He wasn't an idiot, and he knew the girl was a very intelligent and organized person, and it always bothered him to think she might know something he didn't, and to wonder what obscure corners of the world she was mentally wandering to. Her loyalty had been solid for all these years, but her methods were strange, and her reactions to things didn't always make the most sense to him. Every action she performed always seemed to hint she had an agenda, but her words – even her tone of voice – said quite the opposite.

Rissa was not blind to Robotnik speaking to her, despite how she may not have appeared to notice his gaze upon her. Though her expression hardly shifted, she responded listlessly, "No, sir. I am simply keeping out of your affairs." She knew it was best to remain blunt, especially given the sharp gaze he was locked on to her with.

"Hmm, I see," Robotnik lulled, clearly unconvinced that Rissa's silence had no meaning. Though there was little in the way of proving if she was keeping information from him, he still carried his suspicions, and it was of no surprise to any party involved when he leaned forward in his seat and hissed, "But if you are keeping information from me, I will be most unhappy."

Rissa responded with a small shake of the head, "I promise you, sir, nothing I am thinking of right now would be of even remote interest to you. It is trivial by comparison, a flawed product of my own mind."

That was a statement Robotnik could always agree with. He couldn't help but be fascinated by the way her brain worked, the way it processed and reacted to new information. This young girl alone was almost like a fascinating science experiment, a test where the variables were self-aware and changed themselves at will simply to make the solution that much more unclear. He often wondered just how trivial her thoughts really were. Was she hosting criticisms of him that she was keeping to herself? Was she plotting some wild scheme that was never meant to see the light of day? For all he knew, it would be nothing but meaningless babble, a bunch of words and phrases he would have absolutely no interest in listening to for any amount of time. Even so, even if that's all it was, part of him yearned to know this, if just for the purpose of getting closure on it.

"As fascinated as I am by what goes on in that addled little head of yours, I do think I'll save those questions for a later date," Robotnik finally said, adjusting his position in his seat. He definitely planned to do so, though. He wanted nothing more than to prod at the young girl until he understood the flawed way her brain works. "I have more important affairs to attend to, after all."

Rissa saw this as an opportunity to shift his fascination away from her and on to something a little less... disturbing. As such, she asked, "Is the latest robot progressing as planned, sir?"

"Yes, the project is going quite well without that hedgehog burrowing his nose into my affairs," Robotnik responded suddenly, his mind clearly already having changed topics. Rissa never ceased to be amazed by how quickly Robotnik could change topics or lose interest in a prior encounter. It was both amusing and disconcerting, though she would never make either reaction even the slightest bit clear. As Robotnik abruptly rose from his seat, Rissa took multiple steps backwards, clearing the way for him to step away from his seat without bumping into her. Rissa didn't need him to explain to her why he was arising, and clearly this very same idea translated just as well to Robotnik, as he provided no explanation when his eyes locked upon her figure and he hummed, "You are free to accompany me to check on the current state of my project. However, if you choose not to, then you are to remain here until my return."

"I would prefer to join you, sir," Rissa stated almost too quickly, though with little shift in her tone of voice. "Snively's presence is greatly unbearable and I am far more interested in your machines than I am whatever nonsense he is doing."

Robotnik couldn't help but feel amused inside as Rissa went out of her way to take a needless jab at Snively despite his complete lack of involvement in their conversation. It was very clear to him from day one the two of them were not going to be getting along, and he silently found himself fascinated with their bitter hatred for one another. She was downright vile to the little man from time to time, and if he had a heart within his chest, it would've warmed it just the slightest bit to see her taking jabs at him for his shortcomings. It was just another little hint that his personality was slowly leaking into her own, like a parasite grubbing for a new host to expand its own lineage.

"Then follow me, and keep pace," Robotnik huffed. "I'll simply leave you behind if you don't." As if to translate this non-verbally, he immediately began to make his way to the door.

"Yes, sir," Rissa echoed before making haste to keep pace with him. He might not have been the fastest man out there, but Rissa wasn't exactly known for her expert speed either, and the abruptness of his choice to start moving had given him a head start which Rissa had to dash a little to clear.

As Robotnik and his underling departed from the room, Snively was none the wiser to the entire encounter. From the very blunt jab taken at his expense, to the two parties departing from the room, he had hardly noticed. As much as Snively wanted to secretly listen in on the encounters between Rissa and Robotnik, he had often found himself in a very discomforting spot under the spiteful glower of his leader's gaze as he stepped over his boundaries a little too far in an attempt to figure out what Robotnik saw in her that he didn't see in his own nephew. Snively had kept silently to himself as he continued his job, monitoring the security cameras in their almost lifeless state and keeping out of the private conversations his leader opted to host directly in front of him.

Despite Robotnik's size, he did not slow down as he traversed his very own headquarters, and his gait alone made Rissa have to keep a slightly swifter pace to keep on his tail. She was given a short breath of fresh air as Robotnik paused at an elevator, awakening the device. With a subtle ding the doors slid open, revealing the cramped space inside. Rissa kept back as Robotnik made his way into the elevator first, and to absolutely no surprise to her, the moment he was nestled within the elevator itself, he was already making to press the button for the floor he wanted, showing no regard to whether or not Rissa was even inside the elevator with him. She darted in through the doors as they thrust shut behind her, and was quickly reminded that these elevators were not intended to carry multiple people when Robotnik was within them. It was a cramped experience, and Rissa had to press her back against the wall to avoid accidentally bumping Robotnik. The lack of breathing room and the stale air floating within the elevator always made these experiences rather unpleasant, though she revealed absolutely nothing to indicate this experience was anything more than normal to her. She always keep any discomfort to herself, silent, hidden, and well masked underneath a deep layer of absolutely zero expression.

Rissa was not surprised when Robotnik began rambling about his latest creation. "I do greatly look forward to revealing this weapon to those accursed Freedom Fighters," Robotnik began, beaming externally from how proud he was of his own accomplishments. "The looks on their faces will surely be worth it."

"Yes, sir. I am sure it will be quite amusing," Rissa fortified lifelessly.

This was relatively normal for Robotnik, gloating before he even did anything about how wonderful his creations were. It hardly even mattered what he invented or built, as he would go on and on about how brilliant it was and how brilliant he was for making it. Like any other time he would go on and on, Rissa kept her gaze low as he spoke, dully agreeing with everything he said whenever an opening presented itself and indicating no signs that she had any criticisms or even wished for him to just take a moment to not talk about it. She knew his pride would not be washed up easily, and that the only right thing to say here was to simply find his success as fascinating as he evidently did.

"Thanks to the suspicious lack of activity around these parts, I have been able to spend a gratuitous amount of time working on this project, and keeping the details very silent to make certain those Freedom Fighters don't find out about it. It's quite a large project, you'll find, but at its final steps, it will be exactly what he need to put an end to those Freedom Fighters once and for all." Robotnik hadn't actually clarified what it was he was even talking about. He just kept going on and on about how great it was, and didn't even hesitate in his words as the elevator doors thrust open. He merely stepped from the elevator and kept talking, making no attempt to even bluntly acknowledge his underling as he began moving down the hallway.

Rissa was simply happy to be out of that elevator, though she didn't exactly allude to this externally. She could listen to Robotnik go on all day about how wonderful his inventions were, or even just how amazing he was, but she rued those short elevator rides.

"I've been borrowing many ideas from my past creations to make this, as well as the blueprints you provided me from your own collection," Robotnik continued on, visibly clearing his throat as he spoke the word 'provided' as though to emphasize the true nature of how he obtained these.

The final statement, however, came as a shock to Rissa. She was already fully aware that Robotnik had been stealing her blueprints for years, and that many of her ideas would conveniently appear on creations he made with her signature crudely scribbled over so he could stake the claim for it. However, she had actually been unaware Robotnik had been using blueprints of hers for his current project, and she had to admit a minor curiosity for which details of hers would appear, especially if this project was really as needlessly large and impressive as he was making it out to be. She knew he would take full credit for her ideas, but even just getting to see something she came up with in action was admittedly cool – even if it did always end up as a pile of rubble and useless scrap metal in the end.

Rissa hummed with a nod, "My blueprints are all yours as well, sir. It would bring me great pleasure to see you improve upon them."

The little addition of the word 'improve' seemed to be an excellent choice, as she immediately noticed Robotnik beaming a little as he replied, "Good, because I have already begun to do so." His eyes narrowed a little as he sharply added, "Though if you didn't, it would mean little to me."

"Understood, sir. What's mine was always yours, though," Rissa added, knowing Robotnik would steal her things no matter what she said anyways. Sometimes it was easier to just give him exactly what he wanted before he even commanded they be given to him. Robotnik had immediately launched into another spiel about how great his inventions were, but it was admittedly much of what she had heard before, and she openly ignored a good chunk of it as he rambled on and on. She kept to herself as she passed through a large doorway, listening to check that he was still talking, but really not much else.

Meanwhile, however, other parties were not too far away. From far above in the rafters lurked the familiar figures of the Tasmanian devil and the squirrel, who were making just as rapid progress to discovering what Robotnik was making as he was. They were noting what he was saying far more than his underling was, as he periodically made small comments about what it was meant for, how he felt about it, or even affirmed how close they were to arriving to their destination.

The Tasmanian devil was growing impatient as time progressed, and his brain tired of listening to Robotnik repeat himself. "Dear lord, how does that girl put up with that?" the Tasmanian devil finally huffed, knowing they were far enough away to not be heard by the duo.

The squirrel glanced to her ally as he spoke, noting his comment and shaking her head, "I guess you'd get used to it eventually, but I know for a fact I couldn't deal with it. He just repeats himself so much."

The two of them sighed together as they looked upon Robotnik and Rissa heading towards their destination from above, keeping themselves well masked from their enemies as not to be detected and ousted.

Abruptly, the Tasmanian devil turned to his squirrel ally and innocently asked, "Do you think I'd be able to shoot him from here?"

"What? Are you insane?" the squirrel asked with a concerned twinge in her tone of voice. "You do realize how dangerous something like that would be to attempt, don't you?"

"Well, I know that," he uttered. Then, the gaze of the Tasmanian devil hardened a little. "But do you think I'd be able to land a fatal hit?"

The squirrel shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe. You aren't considering trying, are you? If you miss, that would be really bad for us."

The gaze of the Tasmanian devil was firm and serious, and his eyes reflected just how strongly he wanted to give this a shot. "Yeah, but imagine what it would be like if we landed this hit. Imagine if we killed Robotnik – we could put an end to all this chaos right now instead of just being followers and hoping it eventually comes to a close." His gaze sifted back to the area below, eyes beaming in the darkness as he stared fiercely upon their greatest foe. "I can't stand snaking around in his shadow and doing nothing about it. Think of how rare it is to get a chance like this. There's no one except that girl with him. No robots to protect him, or alert him to what's going on... and she's not even paying attention to him. We could take the shot, end his disgusting existence, and escape." His tail was tense, and it was clear from the look in his eyes how much this meant to him, but the little squirrel was still not convinced, and she felt her muscles growing just as tense as he inched forward a little, hand twitching in the direction of his laser weapon. She admitted that laser weaponry was indeed powerful, and that a lethal hit was possible – but the fear of what would happen if he missed kept her uncomfortable.

Unbeknownst to the two Freedom Fighters, though, they had managed to cross into the path of a motion activated camera and while it made absolutely no noise to reveal it had spotted them, back in the command center, Snively was being bombarded by a downright yowling of an alarm.

While he initially yowled in terror from how loud the blaring sound was in his fragile ears, he was able to quickly compose himself and check the camera feed to see what was going on. "Huh? Agh!" Snively's reaction quickly shifted as he saw the figures of the Tasmanian devil and the squirrel hidden in the rafters on his screen. "Of course! Dr. Robotnik, sir, there are intruders in –" His words were cut short as he turned around to face his leader and found his eyes staring upon an almost entirely empty seat. He came to find Cluck nestled in the middle of the seat and no one else, and the bird angrily clucked at Snively as if to hint that he needed to learn to pay attention. "Aah! Robotnik is gone! So is Rissa. Why does he just run off and fail to notify me where he's going?"

Snively was internally glad that Robotnik didn't get to hear his criticism of his habit of leaving without letting anyone know where he was going, as it would have been very bad if that complaint had been heard. Still, Snively found himself horribly irritated at the absence of his leader at a time like this, especially since he now had no idea of how to inform Robotnik of the first sign of Freedom Fighter movement in quite some time. It was just his luck, though, that after all these days of total silence, the Freedom Fighters make a move right at the time Snively would find himself unable to warn his leader about what is going on. His only hope was to try and find a camera Robotnik happened to be near and project the warning to his leader through the camera, but with so many cameras just inside the primary headquarters alone, goodness knows which one would be the correct one to find Robotnik.

"He likely went to check on his latest creation," Snively mumbled to himself as he rapidly shifted through camera feeds in the general area of the device and paths he might possibly take to reach it. "How long ago did he leave... which path did he take!" Sweat was racing down his forehead as he tried to quickly find the answer.

The movement above had caught Rissa's eyes as well, and she hesitated a second to toss a curious glance up into the rafters. Initially, she saw no further sign of movement, but her suspicions were not fully calmed, and she kept a relatively slow pace as she began moving once more, eyes fixated on the location of the supposed movement, but head firmly forward to make it appear otherwise. As she kept a slow pace, Robotnik was able to put quite a bit of distance on her, but as he continued rambling on, it was evidently clear he didn't exactly care to notice his underling lagging behind. To her luck, the figures in the rafters above assumed Rissa didn't notice them and made to move once more. "There..." Rissa mumbled to herself, noting the two unknown figures sneaking about above her. "But what are they...?" It was then Rissa spotted a small flicker of light, a subtle blue flash that wouldn't have been difficult to miss if you were looking in that direction.

Her mind took a moment to try and figure out what that blue flicker was, but it wasn't long before she figured it out, and a casual curiosity in what those intruders were even supposed to be doing turned to terror as she quickly discerned that this blue flash was nothing quite so innocent. Rissa noted Robotnik was still unaware of her absence, so she did the one thing she could think to draw his attention.

Picking up the pace as best she could, she raced swiftly towards Robotnik, howling, "Boss! Watch out!" as she did so. Robotnik hesitated on a staricase as his underling yelled to him, but he hardly had time to organize what was going on before she jumped in front of his large figure, just in time to be blasted directly in the torso by a violent blue energy beam and thrown awkwardly to the floor.

Rissa could feel each moment almost in slow motion, the burning of her flesh as the vibrant energy beam made contact with her skin, the warm feeling of blood oozing down her chest and sinking into her clothing, and each bump as she rolled across the floor and slammed into Robotnik's feet. Her head was spinning about, her body feeling weak as blood welled up in her chest. She could feel shivers wracking her body, indications of agony and weakness, but even in her weakened state, she managed to mumble, "Intruders... n-nine o'clock... a-above y-you..." before another sharp shiver wracked her fragile figure.

Robotnik wasted no time in looking upwards in the direction Rissa had indicated in, and it wasn't difficult to spot the fleeing figures of the Freedom Fighters as they tried to use what happened to cover their escape. "Swatbots! Get those intruders, now!"

As Robotnik quickly called his security force to arms in an attempt to pin down on the intruders, Rissa had managed to shakily rise to her feet, hand clamped over her bloody chest, figure hunched over in clear agony. Despite the pain she was in, she turned her gaze to Robotnik first and asked the most obvious question, "A-Are you o-ok, sir?" Her inability to clearly speak did not betray her pain, but this meant little to her leader.

"With your intrusion, yes," Robotnik huffed irritably in response, clearly more concerned about the presence of enemies in his base than the well-being of his underling.

Rissa expected this, and was not the least bit surprised. She knew as she chose to take the laser blast for Robotnik that he would be entirely concerned for his own well-being and consider her actions nothing more than expected loyalty. "I-It was my pleasure, s-sir," Rissa winced in response.

Robotnik remained fixated on the intruders as he boomed, "The Swatbots have successfully chased the intruders from this room. I am going to be locking down this entire room to prevent any chances of the Freedom Fighters getting back into here and reaching my invention. Move quickly, or I will simply lock you in here too, girl!" Rissa wasn't the shocked by this statement, nor was she shocked when he sharply turned on his heel and ran in the direction of the elevator, showing no further concern if she could even keep pace with him.

"Y-Yes, sir!" Rissa called in agreement, trying her best to bite back the twinges of pain that flashed through her damaged body as she rushed to keep pace with him. His strides were much longer than hers, and her weakened state made it quite a struggle to keep up with him. She pushed herself with every fiber of strength she had left in her body to squeeze through the elevator doors as they slammed shut, breathing a noticeable sigh of relief as she just barely managed to make it to safety. Never did she think she'd be so glad to be riding in an elevator with Robotnik, especially given just five minutes ago she had considered it the worst thing she had ever done, but as the elevator doors slammed shut behind her instead of in front of her, it was the most relieving thing she had seen all day, and the ride was a nice breath of fresh air for her to try and relax a little before she was forced to endure more increasingly painful sprinting as she continued to bleed.

The pace never slowed, but at the very least, there was no longer a threat of being locked in a room for goodness knows how long. Even so, she was noticeably lagging behind Robotnik, and he was able to enter the main control tower a noticeable time before she could.

Snively looked up in relief as Robotnik burst back into the room and made for his own chair. "Sir, there are –" Snively began, only to be cut off.

With a downright malevolent glare and a hiss that dared the little man to say anything else, Robotnik hissed, "I am fully aware of the intruders, you fool!"

Before Snively could formulate a response, Rissa finally caught up with her leader, the door sliding open once more to allow the badly wounded girl entrance into the command center. Snively noticed her almost immediately, and it wasn't difficult to see the blood-soaked clothes, the weak shiver, and know something went down. "Did you –"

As if it were a requirement to interrupt everything he tried to say, Rissa cast a furious finger upon Snively and darkly hissed, "A-Ask that question, you p-poiny n-nosed nimrod!" She paused halfway on her journey across the room to sharply glare at him, "I d-dare you!"

Snively quickly decided it was best not to ask. As she took her sharp eyes off him and stumbled to Robotnik's side, it was quickly clear that nothing he said to her would be a good idea. After all, the figure translated enough to him. It was very evident she had been badly wounded, and by his best guess, Snively assumed it had to be by a gunshot – laser by the looks of the damage. He admittedly did want to know what exactly those intruders had even done, but he knew there was a time and a place for everything, and at this exact moment, it was far more appropriate to just keep eyes on the intruders and make certain they didn't cause any further problems. "The intruders have fled outside your facility, sir. The Swatbots are in pursuit."

"Either capture those Freedom Fighters or send them back from where they came! Now!" Robotnik howled angrily, slamming his fist sharply upon his console, which admittedly caused Rissa to wince from how painful it looked. It was becoming quickly evident the Freedom Fighters were fully prepared to escape undetected, and as the chase slowly turned into a failed egg hunt, Robotnik leaned back in his seat, grumbling in irritation to himself over the events that had just transpired. Cluck nestled into Robotnik's lap as he grumbled, and it took only seconds for Robotnik to begin stroking the robotic chicken upon the beak once more, as though it were his personal stress ball. "Those accursed Freedom Fighters thought they could sneak into my headquarters and try to assassinate me." With a low chuckle, he added, "But they didn't account for blind loyalty." He tilted his head now to Rissa, who was trying to hide her pain best she could. Her hands were dyed a vibrant red, an obvious sign she had tried to hold back to bleeding best she could with her hands. He showed little visible reaction to this as he hummed, "I am satisfied you took that shot for me, girl."

"As I-I said before, s-sir, it w-was m-my pleasure," Rissa squeaked weakly in response, trying her best to make it appear as though she were not suffering, but mostly failing to do so.

Robotnik took a moment to reach his free hand over the seat and roughly pat Rissa upon the head, a gesture which was almost addictive to the girl. "Yes, and you're such a good minion for doing so," Robotnik hummed, knowing full well that this simple gesture was a dangerously effective way at keeping her gaze fixated on him. Though it was a double bladed sword at this point, Rissa was fully satisfied with a rough pat on the head and a vague acknowledgment that she did something right. She would've liked it better if he had actually been concerned for her well-being, but at this point in her career, she knew that would be asking for a bit too much, so she accepted what she got. "I am keeping you on standby in case of an enemy return."

No surprise there. Even in her battered state, if the Freedom Fighters came back around for round two, Robotnik was more than willing to throw her battered and bloody body back into the fray to keep himself unharmed. "Y-Yes, sir. Whatever you n-need," Rissa uttered in response, her only confidence being that the Freedom Fighters would likely be too shaken from their failed attempt to kill Robotnik to attempt a return trip so soon.

It was then Rissa noticed Snively was staring directly at her, or more specifically, he appeared to be staring directly at her wounds. Had it been someone else – besides Robotnik, obviously – she might've believed he was actually concerned for her safety, but she knew Snively well enough to know it had nothing to do with that, but more a nosy desire to be involved in her business at every possible turn.

Rissa quickly became offended by his stares, knowing they harbored no love for her, and hissed, "What a-are you looking a-at? M-Move it or l-lose it, Snively!"

At the sound of Rissa yelling – or rather trying to yell – at Snively, Robotnik glanced up now, and when he spotted the little man simply standing idly around and staring, then yowled, "You heard her! Get to work!"

"Yes, sir!" Snively cried before rushing off to go back to his job, startled by Robotnik's sudden intervention into what had otherwise been nothing more than a silent staring contest between two people that didn't like each other very greatly.

Rissa honestly wanted nothing more than to just go off and treat her wounds, but she knew it was be downright idiotic of her to ask permission to do so mere minutes after Robotnik ordered her to remain on standby. Still, she didn't know how much longer she could stand around and silently bleed, and if anything, she was shocked nobody seemed to have a hostile remark about her blood dribbling on the floor. She needed to stifle the bleeding at the very least, so with a small squeak, she finally spoke up. "I-If it isn't too much to a-ask, sir, can I a-at least g-get a towel to wipe o-off some of this blood from my c-clothes and skin?" She was admittedly terrified of what hostile response she would get for making such a request, and initially, this discomfort was only fortified when Robotnik merely glared in her general direction, silently tearing her down with nothing more than his vicious red eyes.

After several uncomfortable seconds of being soundlessly glared upon, Robotnik finally rotated his seat once more, and his eyes fell upon a different person as he howled, "Snively!"

Snively wasted no time in turning to face and move towards his leader, trying to hide small quivers as he approached Robotnik and asked, "Yes, sir? You called?"

"Get the girl a towel to wipe off the blood, Snively," Robotnik commanded firmly, lifting a hand to indicate to the young underling hovering quietly beside him. Rissa was surprised to see him actually honoring her request.

Her eyes trailed Snively's little figure until it was out of the room entirely, but even then, she kept her gaze fixated on where she had last seen him. He moved swiftly, and it wasn't long before he returned to the room with a plain towel under his arm. He dashed past Robotnik and up to Rissa instead, sharply thrusting the towel directly into her hands and mumbling fearfully, "There you go!" before hastily rushing back to perform his duties once again.

Rissa was fully shocked as she held the soft towel in her grasp, feeling both internally satisfied, a little confused at his willingness to actually provide her with anything. She felt uncomfortable straight up saying thank you to him, especially give she had never particularly heard the words coming from his mouth, so instead she quietly mumbled, "Your gift is much appreciated, sir." She received absolutely no response bar a glance so brief that blinking would've rendered it pointless, but the mere idea that he even went this far was more than enough for her to feel satisfied, and she moved to quietly wipe the blood off her very own clothing and skin without another word.

Though Rissa knew that Brixian would throw a fit once he got wind of this. That much was absolutely for certain.


End file.
